The stars didn't quite align for Northwood to take home a third consecutive boys title this season, but the entire team's presence at the 2019 47th Annual Foothill Swim Games certainly did not lessen.  Photos courtesy of Mitch Mallough.

As the defending boy's California CIF State Champion, CIF Southern Section D1 Champion, and two-time defending Foothill Swim Games Champion, the Northwood Timberwolves always has a target on its back.

The prestigious 47th Annual Foothill Swim Games, which started Thursday and ended Saturday, April 13, 2019 was a star-studded venue with (15) fifteen Southern California high schools facing a new level of competition at the Foothill High School Aquatic Center.

Northwood's boys finished second with 358 points, but fell to University's Trojans by 19 points.  Both teams battled fiercely right from the start to the meet ending 400 Free Relay.  Meanwhile, Tesoro High School's Titans took a distant third with 335 points.  In the contest, Northwood's boys lost 2 of 3 relays to University, but came away with several top individual placements.  Across the board against Tesoro, however, the Timberwolves collectively posted much faster times.

In the finals session, it was juniors Felix Zhu, David Xue, and senior Conner Budka who were key scoring contributors for the Timberwolves.  Zhu blasted his way churning out a speedy (47.89) 100 free, and (1:43.53) 200 free placing fourth in the events.  Xue made a statement third place in the 200 IM (1:57.33), and lowering his best season time by a few seconds.  Xue also made his presence known in the 100 fly notching fifth with another season best (51.98).  Budka finished runner-up in the 100 breast, just .50 hundredths behind first place with a time of 58.76.  

Saturday's action also saw college commit Amanda Hsieh (University Pennsylvania) as the driving force for the Lady T-Wolves, exemplifying the girl's firepower as the top scoring contributor.  Hsieh had a quick and explosive start in the 200 IM, which propelled her to a great breakout that carried through the race recording a season-best time of 2:06.72 for second place.  Hsieh also followed up in the 100 free finishing fourth touching in with 51.78.

“We did awesome collectively as a team.  We're focused on putting together the best team we can,"  said Head Coach Alex Nieto. "The team aspect is huge not only in scoring points but with the overall atmosphere that it creates."

At this point in the season, Northwood is still building up to the Pacific Coast League Championships, and has plenty of opportunities to make qualifying CIF D1 time standards.  In an individual sport such as swimming, it is all too easy to forget that it is team effort that wins meets.  The Timberwolves, who's focus has always been team development, will need to play their strengths to conquer the end-of-month PCL Championships for a fourth consecutive boy's title win.

1. University 377                                                                       1. Santa Margarita 573
2. Northwood 358                                                                     2. Tesoro 369
3. Tesoro 335                                                                            3.  Woodbridge 300
4. Foothill 317                                                                           4. Northwood  238
5. Santa Margarita 314                                                             5. Foothill  210
6. Beckman 252                                                                        6. Irvine 132
7. Woodbridge 141                                                                    7. Beckman 139
8. Arroyo Grande 37                                                                  8. University 97
9. Servite 34                                                                               9. Yorba Linda  36
10. Yorba Linda 6                                                                      10. Crean Lutheran 20

hspn sports & NHS SWIM PRODUCTIONs:

David Hill, HSPN Sports West - Post Meet Interview with NHS Coaches Cameron Nelson & Alex Nieto

TOP 16 Event Winners:

Relay Events Winners:

Video Footage Courtesy of NHS Swim Staff

TWITTER: @NHSSWIM1

FACEBOOK: FACEBOOK.COM/NHSSWIMTEAM